For Firing Me
by Omnicat
Summary: The girl bearing the latest bid for Relena Darlian's demise might as well never have existed.


**Title:** For Firing Me

**Author:** Omnicat

**Unofficially Adapted From:** Masashi Ikeda & co's _Gundam Wing_, including side stories; in particular _Episode Zero_.

**Spoilers & Desirable Foreknowledge:** All of the above.

**Warnings:** None.

**Characters & Pairings:** Middie, Heero and Relena; no explicit pairings, but those with 1xR (or even 12xR!) goggles might see something they like. :3

**Summary:** The girl bearing the latest bid for Relena Darlian's demise might as well never have existed.

**Author's Note:** Enjoy!

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**For Firing Me**

A faint form moves through the turbulent darkness of the night, wild gusts of wind whipping strands of hair around its head and like a trail of wayward moonlight across its back.

_My name is Middie Une. Yes, I'm related to Lady Une of the Preventers, but only distantly. I can remember meeting her only once, at my mother's funeral. I didn't know her name back then, and she probably didn't even know who she was saying goodbye to. I was nine at the time. I'm eighteen now. But in the years since then, I've often felt like a hundred._

Its descent along the inside of the perimeter wall, trek through the spacious gardens, tinkering with the lock on the kitchen door, and quick entry, are muffled by the howling of the storm, hidden in the shadows of the clouds whirling above.

_Both my parents used to work in an Alliance mobile suit development factory. They weren't ever at the front lines or in a cockpit, so we thought they'd be safe. Until a 'minor' production flaw in the ultra-compact fusion reactors that power MS caused almost half the factory's staff and employees to come down with radiation poisoning. My mother was hit heavily and died within days; my father's immediate symptoms could be treated because he'd been further away from the leak, but he died of cancer within two years. I wasn't able to attend that funeral._

Inside, the black-clad figure's stride is gracious and soft - padded, like a cat's - and though the path it follows is sure and straight, the figure pauses at times, moving its head as if searching, only to proceed on its knees or toes the next few yards; no trace of it is left in the cameras.

_A few months after the incident, my father had weakened so much from the many tumors sprouting all over his body and the constant battle against infections that he could no longer work or take care of me and my three younger brothers. While my parents' savings lasted, I had to take care of him and somehow keep my own and my sibling's lives in order at the same time. And when the money ran out..._

Upon reaching a certain door on the second floor of the building, the figure pauses, looks around, and presses its ear to the wood before entering, silent as a ghost.

_The Alliance wasn't cooperative, to say the least. They tried to keep what had happened silent, to cover it all up, but incident caused unrest and dissatisfaction among the local people to spark up nonetheless, and by the time I came knocking at their door for help, the protests had escalated into all-out mobile suit battle. A little girl such as myself telling them they owed their sick former employees money and care was the last thing they wanted to deal with._

Blending into the shadows expertly, the figure takes its time looking around the bedroom before turning to the bed and the sleeping figure curled up in it.

_But I was desperate and didn't give up. Eventually I hit a spot of luck... if it can be called that. I approached an officer tasked with eliminating a squad of mercenaries hired by local rebels. He saw my appearance as the perfect opportunity._

Kneeling beside the bed, the intruder is content just looking at the sleeper; only after a while does the person raise a hand to the sleeper's face, moving in a caress without touch, and leans forward, until pale strands of its hair fall against the other's rosy cheeks.

_There was a young boy with those mercenaries, you see. He was about my age and he didn't even have a name. I infiltrated his troupe and got them all killed. In return, the Alliance gave my family all the pension and compensation money they owed us._

The sleeper stirs, nose crinkling and murmuring faintly, and the intruder backs away with a smile and an unheard whisper; "Sleep tight, little starlight. I expect you to be ready to shine for your people again on the morn." Then it snorts at its own fanciful words.

_But they didn't do it out of generosity. They gave us the money, and they could take it away again whenever they wanted. I'd been so... successful that first time that I was soon put on a new case. Doing something like that again was the last thing I wanted, but they left me no other choice. I was good at the game, so in time there came a third mission. And another, and another... I've been in the espionage business ever since, even though the payments to my family were cancelled years ago. My little brothers will probably have forgotten my face by now._

The intruder leaves a thick folder on the bedside table as it departs, and waves casually at an infrared camera mounted on the wall before opening a window and sitting astride the windowsill.

_The people who've kept me on a leash all these years, using me and manipulating me, are still trying to stir up trouble. They're unhappy with their fate and think that if they proceed as they always have, they can change the world to their liking. But honestly?_

When faced with the barrel of a gun and a pair of blazing blue eyes, she smiles and raises her hands above her head with all the calm in the world.

_I've watched the news. I've been inside places. I've seen the changes they keep whining about. It took a while, but every time they sent me out to undermine the new regime, I began to realise more and more that I'm sick of the old ways they continue to extol. It's funny how my younger self became convinced of the pointlessness of resistance and my own 'investment' in their cause almost simultaneously._

The stormy winds form an eerie backdrop to the girl-woman perched nonchalantly in the windowsill. It looks like she can be sucked into the chaos behind her and vanish like a puff of smoke at any moment.

"They sent me here to assassinate Vice Foreign Minister Relena Darlian. Don't worry, I didn't hurt her, but you should really take better care of something so precious. It would be a shame if she got killed and my bluff was called."

_The new way is better. Why they won't accept that, why they refused to take responsibility for the 'accident' that killed my parents and the reason they had for exploiting me when I was most vulnerable... In a sense, I understand, but... I really could not care less about their excuses anymore. All I know is that what they did, and what they're doing, is wrong. It's all I need to know._

The blue eyes narrow and the hands holding the gun tighten, but before Heero can open his mouth, Middie continues, her words so relaxed they disappear on the wind almost as soon as they are uttered. "The spy called Middie Une will disappear from the radar tonight, along with a good load of her employers' money. And in the near future, a tropical island somewhere far away is going to get a young, rich new inhabitant. The only thing that will be left of me is the parting gift I left by the Minister's bedside. I'm counting on you to make good use of it."

Their eyes never leave each other's face as Middie lifts her remaining leg over the windowsill.

"I'm putting all my chances on Relena Darlian. Don't you two let me down, Heero Yuy."

And in a whirlwind of black-clad limbs and pale hair, she is gone, leaving only the storm beyond the empty sill. She might as well never have been there.

But as Heero closes the window he nods, because he knows that when he wakes Relena, she'll want to hear everything there is to know.

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**PSAN:** Hope you liked it. Spread the Middie love! ^_^


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